snippetbashTip

write — Write a message on the terminal of a specified logged in user (`<Ctrl c>` to stop writing messages).

Submitted by: @import:tldr-pages·Mar 2, 2026·

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theterminalcommandcliwritespecifiedmessage

Problem

How to use the write command: Write a message on the terminal of a specified logged in user (<Ctrl c> to stop writing messages). Use the who command to find out all terminal_ids of all active users active on the system. See also: mesg. More information: <https://manned.org/write.1p>.

Solution

write — Write a message on the terminal of a specified logged in user (<Ctrl c> to stop writing messages). Use the who command to find out all terminal_ids of all active users active on the system. See also: mesg. More information: <https://manned.org/write.1p>.

Send a message to a given user on a given terminal ID:

write {{username}} {{terminal_id}}

Send message to "testuser" on terminal /dev/tty/5:

write {{testuser}} {{tty/5}}

Send message to "johndoe" on pseudo terminal /dev/pts/5:

write {{johndoe}} {{pts/5}}

Code Snippets

Send a message to a given user on a given terminal ID

write {{username}} {{terminal_id}}

Send message to "testuser" on terminal `/dev/tty/5`

write {{testuser}} {{tty/5}}

Send message to "johndoe" on pseudo terminal `/dev/pts/5`

write {{johndoe}} {{pts/5}}

Context

tldr-pages: common/write

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